Sunday, March 27, 2011

Todays song is 'Signal Your Intention' by Hodges, James, and Smith. I couldn't find a ton of information on them, and for the most part it looked like most sites just copy and pasted parts of what this site had on them. So, I will do the same but also link to them and tell you all to check them out.

Hodges, James & Smith (HJS) was the brainstorm of producer/writer William “Mickey” Stevenson, Motown’s A&R Director during their glory years. All Detroit natives, Pat Hodges, Denita James, and Jessica Smith were handpicked by Stevenson, though they each took different routes to get there. Hodges played the clarinet in a local band, then attended college and earned a B.A. in music. James studied ballet and tap dancing, while Smith had a gospel background.

Mickey Stevenson had a great vision for HJS and groomed them to play the top, plush clubs. He created a snazzy nightclub act for them that rivaled the Supremes. They played the sweet gigs throughout Europe and recorded Incredible on 20th Century Fox in 1973, but the only thing incredible about it was the speed it reached cutout bins at discount record stores. Although a solid album, it just didn’t get a decent push. Another 20th Century album, 1975′s Power in Your Love, disappeared so fast that most people can’t recall its title. The lack of recording success though, didn’t douse HJS’ flame; they continued traveling, doing the plum gigs.

In 1976, they signed with London Records. What’s on Your Mind received quite a bit of promotion and acclaim that, unfortunately, didn’t transform into sales. A second London release What Have You Done for Love, met a similar fate. During 1977, they had a few singles that nested in the nose-bleed section of the charts: “Don’t Take Away Your Love,” and a medley “Since I Fell for You/I’m Falling in Love,” but no major busters. Other artists including Bobby Womack, and Sylvester used them on sessions, but after a few more years of the same the trio disbanded, never having achieved the success they and Stevenson tried so hard to obtain.

Here is the track for your enjoyment:

And as a bonus here is their first single 'Nobody' which has a funkier vibe to it, and was also from when Carolyn Crawford was in the group as well:

Sunday, March 20, 2011

So, a little something different for the song of the day. The song is by one artist, while the history will be by another.

Last week the soulful Nate Dogg passed away. He was one of those singers that made appearances everywhere and always killed it with his singing, but never got a lot of support as a solo musician. I always wished he had gotten a little more love and would have been able to do a little experimenting with his singing.

He started out in a group called 213 with Snoop Dogg and Warren G before being discovered by Dr. Dre and doing some hooks for Dre's 1992 classic, The Chronic. A couple of years later, in 1994, he and Warren G would work together on the song 'Regulate' which ended up propelling both of their careers to new levels and earning them a Grammy nomination. Nate continued to do hooks for a wide range of artists and recorded a solo album to be released in 1996 by Death Row, due to legal problems though the album was not released until 1998. The album charted, but not very high. He recorded two more solo albums and countless more hooks before suffering a stroke in 2007. This stroke left his entire left side paralyzed. He suffered a second stroke in late 2008 and required physical therapy. A few more tracks featuring his voice were released in the following years, though I don't know when they were recorded originally. Last week he died from a heart failure and complications brought about by his strokes.

The song used today is Michael McDonald's 'I Keep Forgettin' which served as one of the main samples in 'Regulate.'

And just for easy memory/comparison sake, here is 'Regulate.'

And as a double bonus, here is Nate Dogg's song he recorded as a St. Ides commercial. You've got to give respect to anyone that can make a malt liquor add sound this smooth.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

I've already apologized to my girlfriend about how I drew her, she accepted the apology.

As a bonus today, here is the comic I did for a show at Pimlico Library in London. Once I know a little bit more info about when the opening is and how long it runs, I'll post that info here for anyone living in the area.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Going to be a little short on the history, lots and lots of work to be done on other projects today.

Over the course of his career Edwin Birdsong was a studio musician for many artists, including Stevie Wonder. He helped pen some stuff with Roy Ayers as well. He spent some time as a solo musician as well, but did not find a lot of success. he had a cult following, but nothing particularly wide spread. Here is one of his songs that was later sampled by Daft Punk which was then sampled by Kanye West. So, here is the original version of the sample of a sample, 1979's 'Cola Bottle Baby' by Edwin Birdsong:

Monday, March 7, 2011

I've been doing the whole twitter thing for a couple weeks now and it has been ruling my life. So, why not let it rule my blog for a week? Short and sweet comics...just like twitter! Hopefully short and sweet enjoyment will follow.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Todays song is brought to you by those Philly soul crooners The Delfonics. They worked heavily with one of the Philadelphia soul godfathers in Thom Bell. He helped them string together some hits in their early days (late 60's early 70's) while working on their first four albums. He says that due to low budgets he played most of the instruments himself on the recordings. Some of where the Delfonics history got interesting was after 1975 when they split into multiple groups. The group didn't break up, it just became two groups with the same name performing the same material with different members. The lead members from each group would record together and then tour separately with a couple filler singers, though occasionally the combination of leads would vary. So, any given night you wouldn't necessarily know which line-up you were seeing. But, this song was from their pre-split days and is one of the Thom Bell penned and produced hits (lead singer William Hart also had a hand in the writing.) A lot of people might recognize the chorus from The Fugees re-do and the horns from Missy Elliot's 'Sock it 2 Me.' Here is 'Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide From Love)' by The Delfonics:

And the bonus track today is 'La-La (Means I Love You)' a song Nicholas Cage later butchered on film:

Saturday, March 5, 2011

This is one of those situations where A) I kind of hope someone has thought of this already, and B) Can't believe it took me 11 years to think of it, (Finding Forrester came out in 2000) and C) For some reason still think it's funny.

I suppose the 'You're the man now dog' meme site still keeps it fresh in peoples minds...

Friday, March 4, 2011

And this rounds out movie week. Hope everyone enjoyed the rarely seen movies behind the movies we all enjoy so much.

You can relive your memories of the above movie at the link below. But also, seriously, there are no other parts of peoples skeletons in that entire opening scene. Just skulls. What the eff James Cameron.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Hi to all the awesome new visitors! Thanks for taking a look. Big thanks to Scott C. and Ryan Pequin for the shout outs. Even though most of you probably came to be here through one of them, make sure you support both and check out their sites. Scott C and Ryan Pequin

And if you guys prefer to do blog looking at on tumblr, I have one of those too, with the same stuff on it at: